Early ontogeny and swimming behavior of larvae of the neotropical fish Prochilodus costatus Valenciennes 1850 and Prochilodus argenteus Spix & Agassiz 1829 (Characiformes: Prochilodontidae)

Early development of fish larvae is a highly dynamic process and its study may provide important information about ontogenetic development, bioenergetic growth, behaviour, taxonomic characteristics for identification in natural environments, identification of spawning areas, and population monitoring. With the aim to provide knowledge about their growth and behaviour, to support larval rearing, and also taxonomic purposes, we studied the life history of the Prochilodus argenteus and P. costatus from hatching until the complete absorption of the yolk. Larvae were obtained through artificial reproduction at the Hydrobiology and Aquaculture Station of Três Marias, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Immediately after hatching, 100 larvae of each species were put in two plastic incubators for conditioning. On a daily basis, larvae behavior was recorded and 14 larvae of each species were collected to analyse body morphology. On the first day after hatching, larvae of P. costatus and P. argenteus showed an elongated and transparent body; the yolk sac was filled with individualized yolk globules. In both species, the embryonic fin rounded the caudal region of the body, the retina was non-pigmented and the gut was obliterated. At the second day post-hatching, larvae of both species dendritic chromatophores had emerged, the mouth was obliterated and the pectoral fin was observed. The larvae showed 38-43 myomeres in P. costatus and 42-43 in P. argenteus. For both species, the gas bladder was inflated and the lumen of the gut was already open. On the third day post-hatching, the mouth of P. costatus and P. argenteus was already open in a sub-terminal position; the retina was pigmented; the gill arches had lamellar protrusions and were partially covered by the operculum. On the fourth day post-hatching, the pigmentation pattern was maintained with greater intensity; the mouth occupied a terminal position, the yolk sac was almost completely reabsorbed, and the pectoral and caudal fins showed mesenchymal rays in both species. The gut showed a broad lumen with folded mucosa and epithelium with striated border. The larvae of both species showed similar swimming behaviour. Our study provided understanding about the morphophysiological aspects, species identification, larval development and growth, and the ontogenic characteristics of two Neotropical fishes with importance for commercial and sports fishing

Artificial Neural Network Symbol Estimator With Enhanced Robustness to Nonlinear Phase Noise

This letter reports a novel approach for nonlinear phase noise mitigation, based on artificial neural networks (ANNs) tailored to classification applications and a pre-processing stage of feature engineering. Starting with a set of proof-of-concept simulations, we verify that the proposed system can achieve optimal performance for the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. Then, considering a dispersion-less channel with strong nonlinear phase noise (NLPN) distortion, we demonstrate a Q-factor increase of 0.4dB, comparing with standard carrier-phase estimation (CPE) followed by minimum distance detection. Finally, simulating the propagation of 64Gbaud PM-16QAM over standard single mode fiber (SSMF), we verify that the ANN-based solution is effective on wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) transmission conditions, enabling to increase the maximum signal reach by approximately 1 fiber span over the legacy CPE-enabled NLPN compensation

Evidence Associated with the Use of Oxazolidinones for the Treatment of Skin and Skin Structure Infections: A Retrospective Study

INTRODUCTION: Skin and skin structure infections are an increasing cause of hospitalization. Although mortality is relatively low, skin and skin structure infections are associated with prolonged hospital length of stay and high costs. Oxazolidinones have been suggested as a tool to treat infected patients in the ambulatory setting in order to decrease hospital length of stay. We wanted to address the evidence associated with the use of oxazolidinones in the treatment of skin and skin structure infections. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this observational retrospective study we analyzed the anonymized diagnosis related group coded information from the Portuguese database for hospital admissions, that included all adult patients with a diagnosis of oxazolidinone use and a SSSI, discharged between 2010 and 2015. RESULTS: During the study period, a total of 5518 patients had a diagnosis of oxazolidinone treatment. We selected 483 of those who were also diagnosed with a skin and skin structure infections. Their mean age was 64.9 years and 62.7% were male. The median hospital length of stay was 27 days (Inter quartile range 13 - 56) and the mortality rate was 12.6%. The prevalence of secondary anemia and of thrombocytopenia in the whole group treated with oxazolidinones was 2.5% and 3%, respectively. DISCUSSION: Despite the high bioavailability of oxazolidinones, we were not able to find evidence that its use was associated with a decrease of mortality or hospital length of stay (due to early discharge) of patients with skin and skin structure infections. CONCLUSION: In this study we were not able to find evidence that oxazolidinones had any clinically significant benefit. A structured approach, including antibiotics with favorable pharmacokinetic and safety profile as well as a carefully planned ambulatory follow up may be needed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Study of the vertical transport in p-doped superlattices based on group III-V semiconductors

The electrical conductivity σ has been calculated for p-doped GaAs/Al0.3Ga0.7As and cubic GaN/Al0.3Ga0.7N thin superlattices (SLs). The calculations are done within a self-consistent approach to the k→⋅p→ theory by means of a full six-band Luttinger-Kohn Hamiltonian, together with the Poisson equation in a plane wave representation, including exchange correlation effects within the local density approximation. It was also assumed that transport in the SL occurs through extended minibands states for each carrier, and the conductivity is calculated at zero temperature and in low-field ohmic limits by the quasi-chemical Boltzmann kinetic equation. It was shown that the particular minibands structure of the p-doped SLs leads to a plateau-like behavior in the conductivity as a function of the donor concentration and/or the Fermi level energy. In addition, it is shown that the Coulomb and exchange-correlation effects play an important role in these systems, since they determine the bending potential

Counterfactual thinking in cooperation dynamics

Counterfactual Thinking is a human cognitive ability studied in a wide variety of domains. It captures the process of reasoning about a past event that did not occur, namely what would have happened had this event occurred, or, otherwise, to reason about an event that did occur but what would ensue had it not. Given the wide cognitive empowerment of counterfactual reasoning in the human individual, the question arises of how the presence of individuals with this capability may improve cooperation in populations of self-regarding individuals. Here we propose a mathematical model, grounded on Evolutionary Game Theory, to examine the population dynamics emerging from the interplay between counterfactual thinking and social learning (i.e., individuals that learn from the actions and success of others) whenever the individuals in the population face a collective dilemma. Our results suggest that counterfactual reasoning fosters coordination in collective action problems occurring in large populations, and has a limited impact on cooperation dilemmas in which coordination is not required. Moreover, we show that a small prevalence of individuals resorting to counterfactual thinking is enough to nudge an entire population towards highly cooperative standards.Comment: 18 page

Effects of hyperconjugative interactions on (1)J(CH) coupling constant for hexamethylenetetramine and adamantane: Theoretical and experimental study

The objective of this work was to determine the influence of hyperconjugative interactions on the (1)J(CH) coupling constant for hexamethylenetetramine (1) and adamantane (2). For this end, theoretical and experimental (1)J(CH) were obtained and hyperconjugative interactions were investigated using NBO. It was observed, theoretically and experimentally, that VcH in 1 is 20 Hz larger than in 2, mainly due to the n(N)->sigma(C-H)* hyperconjugative interaction. This interaction occurs only in 1, with an energy of 9.30 kcal mol(-1). It increases the s-character of the carbon atom in the C-H bond and the occupancy of the n(N)->sigma(C-H)* orbital in (1).3071681168

Contribution of midgut bacteria to blood digestion and egg production in aedes aegypti (diptera: culicidae) (L.)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The insect gut harbors a variety of microorganisms that probably exceed the number of cells in insects themselves. These microorganisms can live and multiply in the insect, contributing to digestion, nutrition, and development of their host.</p> <p>Recent studies have shown that midgut bacteria appear to strengthen the mosquito's immune system and indirectly enhance protection from invading pathogens. Nevertheless, the physiological significance of these bacteria for mosquitoes has not been established to date. In this study, oral administration of antibiotics was employed in order to examine the contribution of gut bacteria to blood digestion and fecundity in <it>Aedes aegypti</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The antibiotics carbenicillin, tetracycline, spectinomycin, gentamycin and kanamycin, were individually offered to female mosquitoes. Treatment of female mosquitoes with antibiotics affected the lysis of red blood cells (RBCs), retarded the digestion of blood proteins and reduced egg production. In addition, antibiotics did not affect the survival of mosquitoes. Mosquito fertility was restored in the second gonotrophic cycle after suspension of the antibiotic treatment, showing that the negative effects of antibiotics in blood digestion and egg production in the first gonotrophic cycle were reversible.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The reduction of bacteria affected RBC lysis, subsequently retarded protein digestion, deprived mosquito from essential nutrients and, finally, oocyte maturation was affected, resulting in the production of fewer viable eggs. These results indicate that <it>Ae. aegypti </it>and its midgut bacteria work in synergism to digest a blood meal.</p> <p>Our findings open new possibilities to investigate <it>Ae. aegypti</it>-associated bacteria as targets for mosquito control strategies.</p

Biological decolorization of xanthene dyes by anaerobic granular biomass

Biodegradation of a xanthene dyes was investigated for the first time using anaerobic granular sludge. On a first screening, biomass was able to decolorize, at different extents, six azo dye solutions: acid orange 7, direct black 19, direct blue 71, mordant yellow 10, reactive red 2 and reactive red 120 and two xanthene dyes—Erythrosine B and Eosin Y. Biomass concentration, type of electron donor, induction of biomass with dye and mediation with activated carbon (AC) were variables studied for Erythrosine B (Ery) as model dye. Maximum color removal efficiency was achieved with 4.71 g VSS L−1, while the process rates were independent of the biomass concentration above 1.89 g VSS L−1. No considerable effects were observed when different substrates were used as electron donors (VFA, glucose or lactose). Addition of Ery in the incubation period of biomass led to a fivefold increase of the decolorization rate. The rate of Ery decolorization almost duplicated in the presence of commercial AC (0.1 g L−1 AC0). Using different modified AC samples (from the treatment of AC0), a threefold higher rate was obtained with the most basic one, \textAC\textH2ACH2, as compared with non-mediated reaction. Higher rates were obtained at pH 6.0. Chemical reduction using Na2S confirmed the recalcitrant nature of this dye. The results attest that decolorization of Ery is essentially due to enzymatic and adsorption phenomena.This work was supported by the PTDC/AMB/69335/2006 project grants (Fundacao para a Ciencia e Technologia, FCT, Portugal), BRAIN project (ID 6681, European Social Found and Romanian Government and the grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS-UEFISCDI, project number PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0559, Contract 265/2011

Salt reduction strategies in Portuguese school meals, from pre-school to secondary education-the Eat Mediterranean program

High sodium (salt) consumption is associated with an increased risk of developing non-communicable diseases. However, in most European countries, Portugal included, sodium intake is still high. This study aimed to assess the sodium content of school meals before and after the Eat Mediterranean (EM) intervention-a community-based program to identify and correct nutritional deviations through the implementation of new school menus and through schools' food handlers training. EM (2015-2017) was developed in 25 schools (pre to secondary education) of two Portuguese Municipalities, reaching students aged 3-21 years old. Samples of the complete meals (soup + main course + bread) from all schools were collected, and nutritional quality and laboratory analysis were performed to determine their nutritional composition, including sodium content. Overall, there was a significant decrease (-23%) in the mean sodium content of the complete school meals, which was mainly achieved by the significant reduction of 34% of sodium content per serving portion of soup. In conclusion, EM had a positive effect on the improvement of the school meals' sodium content, among the participant schools. Furthermore, school setting might be ideal for nutrition literacy interventions among children, for flavors shaping, and for educating towards less salty food acceptance